Our invention relates to a therapeutic device for persons usually confined to a wheelchair especially children and adults suffering from some form of mental illness.
Many persons who are voluntarily or involuntarily confined to a wheelchair during their waking hours desire or will be benefitted by something to do with their hands. many wheelchair patients will derive benefits both physically and mentally from being kept busy and having had extensive movement of their hands and arms on a daily basis.
Accordingly, we have invented a therapy steering wheel assembly to be mounted on a wheelchair for rherapeutic purposes. The therapy steering wheel is made to resemble the wheel of an automobile and is rotatable on a plate attached to the horizontal center section of a tubular frame which fits onto the front frame of a wheelchair.
The therapy steering wheel is positioned so that it is presented to the person in the wheelchair in the same position that the steering wheel of an automobile is presented to the seated driver of the automobile. Thus the person seated in the wheelchair can grasp the therapy steering wheel as though he or she were the driver of an autombile. However, unlike an automobile steering wheel, our steering wheel assembly includes a manually adjustable means for varying the amount of force required to turn the wheel.
The exact shape and dimensions of the frame used to attach the steering wheel onto the front of the wheelchair may be varied depending upon the construction of the wheelchair. The important thing is to have the therapy steering wheel presented to the patient seated in the chair, whether he or she may be a child or an adult, similarly to the way an autombile steering wheel is presented to the driver of the automobile.
We have found that a tubular frame is readily adaptable to different wheelchairs and different sized occupants of the wheelchair, especially when the tubular frame is made of chrome plated or stainless steel.